NOTE: THIS STORY IS BASED OFF OF THE
PATHFINDER RPG. SOME COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN USED UNDER THE OPEN GAMING
LICENSE RULES.
Storyline by Justin Groby
Compiled by Amber Manuel
Last time on Dice vs. DMs…
The companions arrived back at the Temple of
Saranrae to find it half-collapsed and the clerics inside all dead. Something
is going on with Osamu, but they’re not entirely certain what.
While the clean-up effort begins, Firro goes
renegade to “get some answers.” The party regrouped and decided to finally go
after the second seal, a task which was much easier than expected.
Tyota’s arrival at the second seal’s hiding
location was not unexpected. But the arch demon that inhabited the armor called
forth from the three seals certainly was…
While Tyota
glared at Lilianna, Osamu vanished. “Was this
what you wanted to accomplish?” Lilianna demanded.
There was a
click and Osamu reappeared holding a gun against Tyota’s head.
“So you’re going
to kill our only information source?” the cleric snapped at him.
Ignoring her,
Osamu pulled the trigger again. The hammer released, but nothing happened. He glared
at the gun and then lowered it.
Tyota’s eyes
rolled back into his head and he crumbled. Firro ran over to him and rolled him
over onto his stomach. Tying him up, she kept an eye on her companions in case
someone else attempted to attack him.
Osamu let out a
long sigh.
“You’ll get your
revenge after we speak with him,” Lilianna declared.
“No torture,”
Firro interjected.
“Why not?”
“It’s not honorable,”
the new paladin declared.
“What about
putting a curse on him and then threatening to not remove it unless he answers
my questions?” Lilianna suggested.
“No!”
“What? It’s not
cruel or unusual!”
“Yes, it is!”
Firro insisted. “It’s torturing him by letting him think he’ll be blind
forever!”
“No it’s not!”
“How about we
wake him up and try tasking him some questions?”
Lili stared at
her, mouth agape. “Am I speaking to the same person who wrenched Zarzu’ket’s
already broken fingers to get him to talk?”
Firro sighed and
then started as movement out of her peripheral vision caught her attention.
Osamu was moving too quick to stop as his blade thrust down towards Tyota’s head.
There was a
brief, horrible pause. Firro stood and pulled her new blade in one smooth
motion, holding it up against Osamu’s neck. “Don’t move!” she snarled.
Lilianna pulled
out the blade, casted breath of life and said, “For the fate of the world can
you wait five minutes, Osamu?! You guys do realize that the armor was separated
for a reason? And he knows why!”
With a gasp of
air, Tyota came back to life.
“For the fate of
the world he should remain dead!” Osamu returned.
Gerard cast
daze, but it didn’t seem to have any affect on the ninja.
Firro swung at Osamu,
pushing him back a few paces despite missing with the blade.
“Shit just got
real!” Gerard laughed.
“You want info?”
Osamu snarled. “You can get it at a temple in a town east of here that was
burned to the ground. The armor will be there!”
“How do you know
that?”
“There was a
legend from my clan, of a great warrior, one of forged a blade of ice,” he pulled
out a blade and it iced up, “and one of fire.” He inclined his head to the
blade laying beside the trussed up Tyota. “This great warrior only fought when
necessary. He was one day defeated by a giant of a warrior wearing blackened
armor.”
“And that’s
where the demon is?” Lilianna demanded.
“At the shrine,”
Osamu agreed. “The legend continued…every 10,000 years or so this thing would
come and attack the village and destroy it until one day a great and powerful
sorcerer locked it away. In doing so, it killed him. That sorcerer was grandpa.
Shrine was built in his honor.
“The armor is
back in my home town.”
“How do we
defeat it?” Gerard asked. “Demons are immortal.”
“We can’t kill
it but can imprison it,” Lilianna said, and frowned at Osamu. “It’s been in
you. So your grandpa imprisoned it inside you?”
“I guess so,” he
reluctantly agreed.
“And why are you
just telling us?” she demanded. “We’ve known about this for a day now… Last
night! Why didn’t you say anything last night?!”
Osamu grinned.
“You should be
glad I love my goddess…” she snarled in returned.
“We should go to
the town for the fate of our known world.”
Firro adjusted
the blade away from Osamu. She was concentrating on detecting evil, but it wasn’t
coming from the ninja any longer. “You can wait,” she said and focused on the
evil to his left.
Osamu turned and
began to walk away. “Follow if you want. I am going.”
Lilianna put a
dagger to Tyota’s throat. “If you don’t tell her what I want to know about the armor
I will kill you!”
Tyota gazed
impassively at her. “Don’t let him get the armor,” he said.
“I don’t think
anyone should have the armor,” she returned. “That’s my goal.”
A red beam came out
of the area that Firro was focusing on and hit Tyota. The ninja was suddenly
completely still. He looked as if he were frozen in time.
Firro lifted her
blade higher as the perpetrator appeared. “It’s a quasit demon!” she called.
“Hm, someone
released a deeeemoooonnnn!” it growled in a high-pitched rumble.
Firro started to
swing at it and it shrieked. “I’ve got information!!”
Her inner bard
cringed at the loss of information and she pulled her swing. “What kind of information?”
she gritted.
“Where it really
is!”
“What really is?”
“Information doesn’t
come without a price.”
She let out a
growl. “What is your price?”
“A favor to be
determined later.”
“I don’t deal
that way,” she returned. “Either tell me what you want right now or deal’s off.”
“But I have much
information you will find interesting! I won’t cause you to go against your
morals, paladin!”
She attacked it,
her new sword lighting up with blue white holy light. The demon fell to the
ground, shrieking in agony. A moment later it disappeared. Firro stabbed the
sand where it had lain. Tyota jerked and began breathing again.
“The armor,”
Lilianna snapped at him, picking right back up where they had left off. “Tell
me more about it!”
“Whoever wears
the armor can take possession of the demon and control it,” he said.
“A relic with a
demon in it?” she murmured.
“The demon uses the
armor to gain a solid form. And Osamu might be right about it being at the
shrine.”
“How can you
know that?” Lilianna asked him.
“The demon that
was inside him destroyed our hometown. It decimated everyone and everything in
its way. There was very little left and there may be something of it left
inside him!”
“The demon is
our priority,” Firro said.
“We can’t
destroy the demon, though,” Lilianna told her. “We can only send it back where
it came from. How do we defeat it?”
“There is a way
to destroy it,” Tyota said. “You should let me come with you.”
Firro
concentrated on him, finding him full of evil, but saying what he truly believed
to be the truth.
“We can’t trust you,”
Lilianna told him.
“Don’t kill him
until I get back,” Firro said.
“Where are you
going?”
“To pray,” Firro
replied. She walked off to go pray inside the temple but didn’t even get there.
She froze barely halfway there. “It’s okay to kill Tyota,” the weapon still in her
hand seemed to say in the voice of the goddess Iomedae. “It is the right and honorable
thing to do. He is not redeemable and will only use you and your friends for
further evil deeds if allowed to travel with you.”
Firro was filled
with the desire to kill Tyota. He was not
redeemable. She knew it. She had hoped he had more information, however.
She raised an
eyebrow at the sword, turned around and walked back to Tyota. Without a word,
she stabbed the assassin. As the lights in his eyes went out, she felt this almost
euphoric feeling of vengeance. Vengeance for Kyaer, for Majet, for the clerics
who had died because of what Tyota had done.
And, undoubtedly,
for many others as well.
“What the hell
was that?”
“Iomedae’s will,”
Firro replied, meeting the cleric’s stunned gaze. Near the horses, Osamu was
laughing maniacally.
Lilianna shook
her head. “Fine.” Getting up, she walked over to Osamu and began speaking with
him. Firro glanced down at the body of Tyota before cleaning and sheathing her
sword. Then she walked over, picked up the seals, and moved to ready her horse for travel.
“Tyota was talking
about the demon killing the clan,” Lilianna was telling Osamu when Firro handed her the red seal. “It’s not that
far of a stretch that the seal was breaking and the same thing that happened at
the church may have happened before. You have to do the right thing when the
time comes.”
“The wrong must
be righted,” Osamu agreed. “Where it started it shall be finished.”
She nodded in
agreement. Glancing at Firro, she said, “We need to get our armor fixed before
we can go anywhere.”
“We don’t
exactly have time to wait for it to be repaired,” Firro replied.
“I have a spell
that can summon an angel for a boon. It will require something in return, but I
believe I can bargain with it to get something we both can afford.”
Firro took a
deep breath and nodded.
Walking a little
ways away from the horses, Lili began the spell. A few moments later a bright
light announced the arrival of the celestial.
“Who disturbs
me?” a voice like the crypt keeper demanded.
As their eyes
adjusted, the party could make out the eight-or-nine-foot tall form of a dog standing
on its hind legs. A pair of huge wings came out of its back and a massive sword
was strapped to his hip.
Lilianna began
by explaining why she had summoned the angel. “I would like to bargain for a
boon,” she added, and mentioned the armor.
The monstrous
angel seemed to think for a moment. Then, “The dark armor will be turned over
to Saranrae. Do not even think to break this pact.”
“Agreed,”
Lilianna said.
It disappeared
as quickly as it came and, looking down, Firro and Lilianna discovered that
their armor was not only restored, but appeared brand-new.
“That was fairly
painless,” Firro commented.
“We need to pass
through Mohito and get our magic items,” Gerard said.
“We need to
check on the temple, too,” Lilianna said. “And my followers.”
“We should also check
on the mine,” Firro mentioned.
“We will on the
way,” Osamu said. “But we should go now.”
No one
disagreed.
TO BE CONTINUED...
TO BE CONTINUED...
